Another rally has come and gone, but this was not just another
rally. There were plenty of negative comments made and printed
before, during and after the rally by narrow-minded, myopic
individuals in positions of responsibility that, I feel, should not
have been made and those people know who they are.
Editor,
Another rally has come and gone, but this was not just another rally. There were plenty of negative comments made and printed before, during and after the rally by narrow-minded, myopic individuals in positions of responsibility that, I feel, should not have been made and those people know who they are.
There is an undercurrent running through Hollister by those in authority to shut down the annual Independence Day Rally, and this saddens me.
Granted there was an unfortunate death, and there were DUI’s along with the usual reckless driving and exhibitions of speed. But consider the fact that we’re talking about an influx in population of 120,000 people over three days, under the close scrutiny of the hired law enforcement agency. I didn’t see a whole lot of socializing or any of the P.D. pressing the flesh of any of those bikers. I never saw the Chief of Police or the County Sheriff running a little PR downtown – only cops roving in packs of six or eight looking for any reason to roust someone.
So, on someone’s authority plenty of tickets were written. Let’s face it. When a pedestrian waves a biker through their path as a courtesy and the police write that biker a ticket for failure to yield to a pedestrian, that’s pushing the envelope. You can run up some pretty impressive citation numbers in a hurry.
Don’t get me wrong here, security is important as we saw Saturday evening as the Mongols and the Angles stood toe to toe. But this represents 1 percent of the crowd that attended this rally. The other 99 percent are bike enthusiast who are out to have a fun weekend, not to pillage and plunder this town and change life as we know it. We’re talking a three-day event.
Comments have been made regarding the closure of downtown shops and stores for this event and the loss of revenue. That is a cop-out for just plain not wanting to be involved. Don’t make the Rally the proverbial goat for your lack of entrepreneurial skills. Think outside the box.
Look at the Boutique De Lingerie. They got involved sold their wares and had a profitable weekend. Ask any of the markets, food establishments, or hotels within 50 miles if it was a profitable weekend. Large sums of money were spent and that equates into tax revenue any way you look at it.
I’ve lived in San Benito County over 30 years and let’s face it, on Fourth of July holidays people are not beating a path to the stores in downtown Hollister. This rally is the best thing to ever happen to this town. It puts us on the map, makes us a destination point along with cities like Carmel and Monterey.
I’m not going to tell you there’s not plenty of room for improvement. I know there are some legitimate gripes out there. There were rally vendors that were real unhappy too. There’s no way that everybody is going to be happy with their situation all the time, but these issues can be massaged out to make a better event.
Now is not the time to shoot the goose that has the potential to lay the golden egg. I know there are people in this town with the skills and expertise to lend a hand and get involved and make this Rally a safe and profitable endeavor for all the residents of Hollister and San Benito County. Instead of pointing fingers, placing blame and creating negativity to this event let’s learn from it and move forward and make the Hollister Independence Day Rally an event we can all be proud of.
Dave Pollard, Hollister
